


guess who just got back today

by irnan



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-30 01:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10866630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irnan/pseuds/irnan
Summary: "Since we're here anyway," said Peter, looking like he was sucking on a lemon, "I think I'd better make a side-trip."





	guess who just got back today

 

It was at the Fourth of July family barbecue, because while Peter would later claim that he didn’t keep track of Earth time in space and had completely forgotten whether you ate turkey or duck at Thanksgiving, the truth was, he was a consummate showman and knew how to make an entrance. He wasn’t above enjoying a bit of sensation. He wasn’t above using a bit of sensation to hide his feelings, either.

So. Fourth of July. What with the alien invasions and the planet recently having been nearly destroyed by a crazy dude with a shining gauntlet, the mood swung back and forth on a dime between elated and freaked out, everyone laughing one moment and snapping at each other the next. Louisa had been cooking all week like it was the last family barbecue they would ever have, and Jack himself would have been happy to do a chore or ten, but Andy had taken charge of the grill not long after arriving and left his father to entertain the kids, both young and old. Occasionally Janet swung by to criticise her brother’s ideas about grilled meat, but otherwise she stayed close to her mother and yelled occasionally at Danny or Jim if it looked like they were about to knock something over.

Let ‘em play, was Jack’s philosophy. He’d been so strict with Peter sometimes…

Peter and Mer hung over the whole gathering, now more than ever. Aliens – twice now, aliens. There was no more room for scoffing at Mer’s ideas about her son’s father. Once, after New York, Jack and Louisa had tried to get in touch with SHIELD, ask questions, get some information, but it had turned out that they were far from the only ones. One more alien visitation, thirty years in the past, no less, had not been particularly interesting to anyone in the Triskelion. (Of course, then it had turned out that they were all Nazis up there anyway. Sometimes Jack thought Cap didn’t deserve a medal so much as a beer, and a nice long vacation on a tropical island. No wonder the poor kid had gone a little crazy there for a while.)

Andy had still scoffed, back in 2012 – real aliens don’t preclude people being crazy, he’d said, and then he had slammed the front door shut and driven off and, according to Ben Lister, gotten drunk off his ass that night and slept in his car in the parking lot behind Ben’s bar. Janet had said nothing about her sister: not after New York and not now. But she looked at her daughters sometimes, at her grandsons, Danny now nearly the same age Peter had been when he’d vanished, and the expression on her face said volumes.

They had raised a headstone to Peter, after a while. No one had ever found him, no one had ever brought up a solid theory or lead. A grave, even an empty one, had seemed like the best way to try and move on, to mourn him... Now, after the attacks, a little hope had come back, at least for Jack and Lou, and the gravestone seemed a mockery. Neither of them had visited in a good few weeks, but Jack thought he might, later today. Like most kids, Peter had used to love fireworks.

It was a beautiful day, thank god. The fireworks were set up for later, the food was excellent, and there was a friendly little breeze in the tree-tops that swept away the smoke of the grill every now and then. Clouds scudded overhead, white and fluffy, and Andy’s youngest had been laying on her back in the grass all afternoon, looking for bunnies.

Thus, it was Sarah who spotted the ship. At first, too far away to be distinguishable from a bird very high up; then, as it came closer, she’d scrambled up and run to Louisa and pointed, shouting.

“Look look look, a spaceship, a spaceship!”

It dropped out of the sky faster than Jack would have believed possible, stunning them all with the speed of it; pausing to hover about thirty yards above the house, it sent a hot wind blowing over them all. It was, or seemed to Jack, a huge old thing, rusted and rickety-looking, and the very shabbiness of it was the convincing thing, the part that told you, no, this is real. No dreamt-up spaceship looked like that: lived-in, banged about, like a second-hand car.

(As his grandkids sometimes liked to complain, depending on what was showing in the movie theatre, Jack preferred to avoid science fiction stories.)

At least three of the girls were screaming, though whether in fear or excitement was impossible to say. The adults though, they were definitely afraid - white-faced, and stumbling away from the house, dragging recalcitrant offspring with them. As the ship lifted up another couple of yards and swerved away from the house towards the east field, Danny and Jim would’ve made a beeline for the thing if Andy hadn’t grabbed a hold of them with shaking hands. Janet was dialling the Avengers HQ hotline, her mouth set hard, and Louisa stood very still and silent in the middle of the garden, watching the ship set down beyond the fence, clutching a spatula to her chest.

Jack limped over to join her. The operation had only been three months ago, and the new hip still ached. He’d scared the bejeezus out of Lou, he knew that.

In setting down, the ship had caused another gust of hot wind that smelt of ozone and rusted metal. Jack coughed and waved the dust out of his face. The – the thrusters, or the rockets, or whatever they were, had flattened the grass in the meadow in a wide circle around it. A crop circle, Jack thought, not sure whether he was about to laugh or cry.

“Go inside,” Lou said.

“Please,” he said. Nobody had gone inside. Fear and fascination froze you up in like measures.

“What if they want –”

“Our kids? No.”

She snorted. “Maybe they’re hungry.”

Jack made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but he couldn’t form words. There was a lump in his throat and a hollowness in his chest and stomach, a sour taste in his mouth. Was he now about to answer to some extra-terrestrial son-in-law for what had happened to Peter? He might punch him if so. Mer had always believed her son’s father would come back. He hadn’t. That was on him, whoever the bastard was, alien or no.

Out in the field, the ship opened up like in the movies, a part of the wall detaching into a ramp that slid smoothly down to reveal the interior. Someone was waiting inside; you saw a silhouette, man-shaped, at least around the head and shoulders –

With a grating noise, the ramp stopped lowering about half a metre from the ground. Mechanics groaned and shrieked; someone inside the ship yelled, in echoing, hollow tones, “Oh come on!”

Distinctly English. American, in fact.

“You dumped it into that harbour!” someone else yelled.

“You said you’d fix it up!” The silhouette moved forwards. Hollow clang, like someone kicking metal – once – twice – then, with a furious tearing sort of noise, the ramp dropped all the way and bounced, metal shrieking angrily. A blond man in a long red leather coat stomped down it – sideburns, and a scruff of beard, and what appeared to be thigh holsters. He was tall, and solidly built: like a fighter. He was also entirely human, or at least looked entirely human, the way that Thor guy on the TV did. Ten yards between him and the fence; he walked through the tall grass with a long easy stride, nothing alien or inhuman in the way he moved.

“Of all the times for this thing to rust up,” he said, more or less to Jack and Louisa. “No I did not 'dump' it into the bay. We got knocked outta the sky by a crazy egomaniac who was trying to destroy the galaxy to impress a chick. I mean, I can relate, but sometimes you just gotta accept that no means no, right?”

Jack said, “Uh, right.” He wasn’t sure if he was horrified or hugely amused. At least no one was demanding any of their babies, and there didn’t seem to be any weird alien stuff happening.

Apart from the malfunctioning spaceship landing in their field.

Louisa said, “I don’t –”

“Yeah,” said the stranger. He leaned on the fence, propped one boot on the lower slat, crossed his arms on the top like the model in a photoshoot, or an actor on TV. “I know.” He heaved a sigh. “Look. Fact is, I never meant to come, and then everyone said I _should_ , because it turned out that, and since we were here _anyway_ , and Gamora has ideas about this sort of thing, which, _considering her sister’s deal_ , is kind of.” He stopped again. “I mean. Probably _because_ of her sister’s deal. Fuck. Uh. Hi, it’s Peter.” He stood up straight and put his hands on his hips. “So yeah.”

And then he did that thing Peter had always done when he was nervous, and scuffed his right foot through the grass, swinging it.

“Peter,” said Jack, disbelieving, and Lou dropped the spatula into the grass, gasping, and Andy yelled, “What the _fuck_ ,” from behind him, and Peter said, “Uncle Andy’s still a massive dick, I see, you’d think he’d mellow with age or something,” they had never got on, Andy and Mer had yelled at each other too often, and it was that disgusted, petty, _ordinary_ annoyance that sealed the deal, no doubts possible, this was Pete, and Louisa said, “Oh _Peter_ ,” choked with tears, and held out her hands to him.

Peter vaulted the fence in a single smooth move and wrapped her up in his arms.

After a moment spent furiously wiping his wet face, Jack stumbled over and hugged him as well. There was no arguing with the strength in that hug, or the solidity of the man; Peter was here and he was very much not dead. Jack was shaking. When he pulled back Andy and Janet had joined them, Janet wide-eyed, Andy suspicious; the kids were circling them curiously.

“What if it’s a trick?” Andy said, hanging back while Janet touched her nephew’s face, hesitant and amazed. She still had her phone clenched in her other hand. Peter didn’t flinch from her touch, but he cut his eyes over to Andy with flat dislike. “You don’t – dad, mom, get away from him. Janet! Prove it. Prove you’re Peter. It might be a scam –”

From inside the spaceship someone yelled, “Come on, is there even anything here to steal?”

“No,” Peter bellowed, half turned back to the ship, “no there is nothing here to steal, we are not here to steal anything, how many times!”

Something clanged again, as if a metal tool had been thrown at a metal wall in disgust.

“They’re shy,” Peter said, straight-faced.

“I am GROOT!” came drifting out of the spaceship, in highly indignant - not to say rude - tones.

“You put that stupid console down and you come out here right this minute!” Peter shouted. "What the actual - no manners. No. Manners. At. All."

A skinny walking tree with eyes and a wide, angry mouth scuffed its way down the ramp and planted itself in the field with its arms crossed over its chest sulkily. It had the instantly recognisable angry slump of the discontented adolescent in its shoulders which was apparently common to the age group no matter what the species. Jack stared. An angry teenage walking tree. OK. OK. The walking raccoon, the woman with antenna, and the shirtless guy with the – tattoos? Scarification? – barely registered as out of the ordinary, after a sulking teenaged _tree_. The woman with the green skin was even dressed – as Peter was – in fairly ordinary-looking clothes, and had dyed her hair in red streaks much the way Janet’s oldest had done when she was sixteen. When she joined them she was very polite.

“I’m sorry for them, I meant to give you some privacy.”

“That’s fine,” said Peter. “Uncle Andy’s accusing me of being a thief.”

The green-skinned woman gave him a look.

Peter grinned at her.

“Prove it,” Andy said again, shaking Janet off when she caught his arm and said, “Andy,” in a low angry voice. "Andy, for god's sake, not now."

“Fuck you you dismissive asshole,” Peter said easily. “You mocked everything my Mom ever said as far back as I can remember and when you finally apologised it was cause you said you shouldn’t make fun of a dying woman.”

There was a long silence. Mattie said, “Dad!” in scandalised tones.

Andy said, “Mer and I –”

“She used to say she should have bullied you more when she was a kid,” said Peter, relentless.

Andy flung his hands up in disgust. “Eavesdropping little boys –”

“All right,” said Louisa sharply. “That’s _enough_ , this a family dinner –”

“Well yeah, that’s why we’re fighting,” said Peter.

Jack put his head in his hands. Lou said helplessly, “Oh Lord.”

Through visibly clenched teeth, Janet said, “Well, are you and your friends hungry? There’s more than enough food.”

“Can I see inside your spaceship?” said Danny, appearing out of nowhere to tug on Peter’s coat.

“No,” said Andy.

“Sure,” said Peter, baring his teeth at his uncle just the way Mer had always used to.

Well. This was going to be a long barbecue. Jack caught a hold of Peter’s elbow and said, “Come and help me find some extra chairs,” and then he caught sight of the grill and yelped, “Dammit, the steaks are burning!” and after that it was all yelling and burnt food and kids underfoot everywhere and Mer’s music playing at ear drum-shattering volumes while Andy bellowed at his nephew to _turn that crap down this instant_ and Janet tried to make peace and Peter’s friend with the scars – tattoos? – offered to fight him for insulting Peter’s taste in music, or something, Jack missed that part, he was too busy rescuing the steaks. The raccoon’s name was Rocket, as it turned out. The tree only knew three words, but he was a teenager, that was par for the course. The girl with the antenna was Mantis, and her first earnest question was about guest-gifts.

“I have been reading books,” she said. “About social etiquettes and interactions. I was raised in isolation on a living planet.”

Lou said helplessly, “That’s nice, dear,” and then, to Jack, “Where on earth has all the beer gone.”

Jack wished he knew. He really did.

Just like every other Fourth of July barbecue, really.

 

 

 

 


End file.
